Rainy Days
by mysticxf
Summary: Jack and Kate are stuck together during a rain storm. Season One feel.


Lost and its characters belong to JJ Abrams, Bad Robot and The Others. Jack and Kate are stuck together during a rain storm. (Season One feel.)

Lost – Rainy Days  
By Mystic  
November 26th 2006

* * *

Back home in Iowa the skies turned ominous before a storm. The dark clouds rolled in over the fields and the snap-clap of lightning and thunder would shake her from a daydream. The rain always took a few minutes to catch up, barely catching her before she stomped up the back steps of the house. She always swung around, her heart pounding with surprise, watching shades of grey spin out in the air.

Some part of her always hoped for a tornado. Hoped that one would come down and sweep her up, sweep away that place, but it never happened. Once, when she was thirteen, she watched a small one dance in the sky, never touching the ground before disappearing behind a wall of rain.

On the island storms came without warning. The warm sun that baked her arms slipped behind the clouds in the instance before the rain crashed down upon her body, shocking her back into reality. The ocean waves in front of her jumped like boiling water and she shuffled into a stand, her hands wiping absently at her face before she remembered where she was.

Sitting on the beach, like usual, staring off at the horizon just waiting for the sun to set on another day. Kate loved the sunsets. She would watch the sun fall behind the place where the end of the world sat and she'd stand and stretch and go back to her shelter. Whatever daydream she'd been having would carry itself into her nightmares and she'd wake up sore and tired, ready for another day to take her memories away.

"Dammit, girl, get out of the rain!" She recognized the husky shout from down the beach and turned towards Sawyer, watching him wave her towards him.

"Kate!" Jack had his hands cupped at his mouth, they were dropping onto his thighs when she looked at him, her legs instantly moving towards her tent where he stood awkwardly – too tall to be standing there – waiting for her. "Quick, under the tarp," he instructed, his hand coming around her shoulder to usher her inside.

She fell against the log that held the back of the tarp in place. Narrowing her eyes, she could barely make out the next tent much less Sawyer's down the beach. She frowned, glancing up when Jack undid two knots on the corners of her tent, letting the front flap roll down heavily.

Jack managed a laugh before pushing two large rocks onto the flap on either side, his hand tapping the slit she'd cut into it as an entrance. She'd made it her own solitary confinement and she waited, still trying to catch her breath, as Jack turned and knelt into the sand in front of her, his hands pressing into his waist as his head hung slightly before looking up at her.

She smiled. "Guess you're stuck here."

Shrugging, Jack nodded. "I was actually looking for a mango, figured you'd…" Kate reached into her backpack and pulled out the fruit for him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She felt bashful saying the words and watched him stare at the mango a moment before looking back up at her.

"It was for Claire," he finished, laying it in the sand next to him. "I'm sure by now Charlie's gotten her ten."

Kate laughed, nodding in agreement. She stared at him as she shifted herself up, less comfortable, more distinguished until he flopped into the space next to her, leaning his elbows back against the log. Kate bit her lip, and then let herself rest next to him.

"Could actually see this one coming over the mountain," he nodded his head towards the opening of the tent which flapped softly giving her peeks out into the torrential rainfall outside. "Might be here a while."

"Fresh out of board games," Kate quipped, waiting for him to laugh, feeling her lips spread into a grin when he did.

Jack sighed and glanced over at her, letting his vision drop to the sand when their eyes met. "Back home, when I was a kid, on a rainy day, I usually sat in my room reading some medical book my father left for me."

With a sigh of her own, Kate replied. "I usually stared out the window waiting for it to stop so I could go back outside."

He chuckled. "Odd."

"What?" She watched the way he played with the edge of his shirt nervously, the motion negating the calm he was trying to display.

"I figured you for one of those kids who ran out in the rain."

Kate huffed out a short laugh and shook her head. "No, I had those parents who always shouted things like 'you'll catch your death of a cold', which, by the way, isn't true, right?"

Inhaling, Jack smiled and let his breath out before uttering a simple, "No."

Narrowing her eyes, Kate shook her head. "I knew it." She leaned her head back. "All those rainy days wasted away daydreaming."

"Daydreaming's not a waste of time."

Kate turned to look at him, watching him stare down at his legs as he crossed them. "I can't picture you as someone who daydreams."

"Oh, all the time," he offered, joining her when she laughed. "You think I actually read those books my dad left me?"

"Yeah," she nodded, her voice disappearing behind a chuckle. "I believe you did."

"Well, I did," he responded, one eyebrow rising quickly. "But after? I daydreamed about becoming a world famous baseball player."

"Not a golfer?"

Jack shook his head. "No, golf came with the doctor thing…"

"Part of the requirements," Kate finished.

Nodding, Jack grew serious. "Yeah, couldn't get my license without learning how to sink a ball." He raised a hand, then dropped it. "Almost cost me a career."

They laughed, listening to the wind howling outside and Kate moved forward to grab a third large rock to seal the opening when it flapped open. She turned back to Jack and she sat in front of him, crossing her legs. "Why didn't you become a baseball player?"

He shrugged. "I played with friends, but, it just wasn't something my dad accepted."

"If you could do it again, would you become a doctor or a baseball player?"

Jack considered, his eyebrows knotting together in concentration. "Thinking back on all the people I've affected? I think I'll keep that choice." He looked up at her and she fidgeted knowing what was coming. "Anything you'd change?"

"Aside from the fugitive thing?" She tried to joke, but it fell flat against her lips. "I would have gone to UCLA." Jack was taken aback and he waited, shifting himself higher against the log. "I got into a handful of colleges and universities, but I stayed home… because of my mom… I had to keep an eye on her, protect her I guess. So I stayed home."

"You think going away to college would have changed…"

"Yeah," she spat quickly. "It would have changed a lot." She let the words hang there and she knew he wouldn't press her on them. It made her feel guilty, that she couldn't just tell him the truth. "What would you have changed?"

Jack sighed and stared up at the blue above him, watching it shake gently with the rain. He sniffled lightly. "There are a million other things I would change. A million decisions I've regretted." He stood and pushed the rocks aside with his feet, rolling the tarp on and tying the two ends loosely so they could see the dying rains outside.

"They say a life well lived isn't lived with regret," Kate offered, twisting around to lean her back against the log. She watched him stare out at the ocean, at the thick curtain of rain that swept out to sea and she tapped his leg with her right boot. "What do you regret?"

He moved to sit next to her, closer than before and he let his arms drop back along the log, the left comfortable behind her shoulders. "Little things," was all he offered and she nodded in acceptance. "Looks like the storm's almost over."

Jack nodded and she watched the pink hues color his face as the storm clouds began to drift away, letting the sun peak back through. "Sun set's just begun," she told him.

Kate watched him glance down at her, the corners of his mouth drifting into a comfortable grin before he looked back out on the ocean. The waves crashed heavily into the sand now and she moved closer to him, molding into his side as the smell of new fires drifted across camp. She always loved sunsets. On the island they were more beautiful than back home in Iowa. This was the best one yet.

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Finis


End file.
